![]() ![]() Some attend the event alone, but many participants join as part of teams representing local businesses. Visitors come from all across Japan and a few from abroad to take part. ![]() ![]() The whole event lasts around 30 minutes and participants emerge with a few cuts, bruises and sprained joints. The shingi are more sought after than the less-coveted twigs, which can be taken home. Whoever succeeds is guaranteed a year of good fortune, according to legend. The 10,000 or so men, packed in like sardines, jostle with each other to get hold of one of the bundles and/or the two sticks. When the lights go out at 10 p.m., a priest throws 100 bundles of twigs and two lucky 20-centimeter-long shingi sticks into the crowd from a window four meters above. In the evening, the men spend an hour or two running around the temple grounds in preparation and purify themselves with freezing cold water, before cramming themselves into the main temple building. “We hope they will be able to keep the tradition alive in the future,” Mieko Itano, a spokeswoman from the Okayama tourism board, told CNN Travel. ![]()
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